NBA shooting guard rankings: No. 8 Ray Allen

Our rankings of the NBA's top 10 players at each position over the next five weeks continues.

These are not fantasy basketball rankings. These rankings also don't measure players' potential or their career achievements. Instead, these rankings are meant to capture where players rank at this moment.

We'll unveil two rankings a day, beginning on Monday mornings with the 10th best player at a position and ending on Friday afternoons with the best player at that position.

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Contract status: Allen is in the last year of the two-year, $20-million contract extension he signed before the 2010-11 season.

Strengths: Allen's an oldie but goodie, especially as a shooter. Last season, he became the NBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers made, passing Reggie Miller. Allen stays in tremendous shape, still able to run off screens. He is one of the all-time greats at the line.

Weaknesses: Allen has never been a great defender, but the Celtics have disguised his warts by inserting some defensive specialists. Allen, who recently turned 36, has been durable the last three seasons but Father Time catches everyone.

The future: Allen will be a free agent after the season unless the Celtics re-sign him. He could probably be effective for a contender for another two seasons.

PER: Developed by ESPN.com's John Hollinger, PER stands for Player Efficiency Rating and is intended to measure per-minute productivity. It's adjusted for pace. The higher the number, the better. The league average for every season is set to 15.0.